Finest Quality Negatives

Because PiezoDN is built upon the proven ink and curve technology of Piezography, the negatives it produces are capable of making thousands upon thousands of tonal transitions. This system truly matches the tonal breadth of noble-metal arts such as Platinum and Palladium printing.

Because PiezoDN is an inkjet printed negative, you can calibrate it perfectly for any given analogue process and print different negatives on the fly, something not done with more expensive LVT film burners.

PiezoDN is Darkroom v2

We started building PiezoDN only for Palladium and Platinum printing but quickly realized it was capable of so much more. We’ve built base-line curves for Gum, Cyanotype, Salt, Ziatype, and Silver and we aren’t stopping there. Over the next few years we hope to build the baseline curves needed for Malde-Ware printout Platinum, gravure, and the list keeps growing!

Calibrate In-House

PiezoDN comes packed with tools for calibrating (linearizing) your own digital negatives. Literally, you can get the same tonal separation in your DARKROOM that you can with Piezography-on-paper..

Hundreds of printmakers rely on PiezoDN as their main dig-neg workhorse.

FAQ

PiezoDN is a set of tools and QuadtoneRIP curves for printing and calibrating high-quality negatives using Piezography ink. PiezoDN is also a set of quality standards and ideas for revolutionizing both darkroom printing and digital printing as a whole.

The only film that we support and the only film that is capable of absorbing the amount of ink that PiezoDN prints is Pictorico OHP Ultra Premium Film. Regular Pictorico OHP or other films will not absorb the additional ink that PiezoDN prints.

The first place to look for information is The Piezography Manual Deluxe Edition that comes installed with PiezoDN and includes detailed instructions on PiezoDN workflow and calibration. This website also has a members-only forum that you’ll be able to post questions on and share curve-files on. This will be the place to ask questions. Lastly, there is tons of general Piezography support at our general forum found at https://community.digitalprintmaking.com

Currently PiezoDN works on both OS X and Windows. Both OS X and Windows versions will print “linear” just like Piezography. Windows does not allow printing with ICC profiles. The OS X version of PiezoDN gives you two choices: printing a linear print (slightly lighter than the monitor) or combining with an ICC profile to match the print to the monitor.

You can print BOTH! PiezoDN uses Photo Black 1 with Selenium shades 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 & (optional) Gloss Optimizer on all supported printers with 8 or more ink channels. The 1430 and 1500W have only 6 ink channels and the GO which is printed at the same time as the inks to increase the durability of the film can not be used on these two printer models. We call this combination of 6 or 7 inks the PiezoDN ink set. This ink set is already present in the “P2” Piezography system and curves. If you have an eighth channel available, you can also install Shade 7 and do full-tilt Piezography printing with the same printer. On the Epson 1430 or 1500W, the Photo Black cartridge can be replaced with an optional Matte Black cartridge to print regular Piezography Matte K6 prints.

PiezoDN uses the Selenium Piezography ink set "officially". This is because the Selenium inks have demonstrated a predictable UV response from batch to batch. The curves that come out of the box with PiezoDN are all calibrated for the Selenium ink set. That said, PiezoDN can be calibrated DIY for any Piezography K7, K6, or P2 ink set on a compatible printer. Our Pro inks are a bit different but PiezoDN works moderately well on those ink sets as well. We just really think the PiezoDN is the best with K6 inks so we "officially" support those classic Piezography inks for this workflow.

Of course! The other ink-sets may not match the exact tonality guaranteed by the Selenium ink but PiezoDN comes with tools able to calibrate your system. If you have some smarts, you can use any Piezography gloss-capable ink set you like and PiezoDN will work perfectly with it.

No. In this sense, PiezoDN is meant for people already adept at darkroom printing. PiezoDN is a digital negative solution. PiezoDN does include datasheets for each of the supplied curves that sketch out the darkroom conditions that were present when each turnkey curve was built.

That said, the private forum that you have access to after buying PiezoDN does have some goldmines of darkroom information. 🙂

Yes. PiezoDN has a set of tools for modifying .quad curves in very unique ways that allow for truly calibrated darkroom work with up to 129 individual calibrated data-points. PiezoDN also allows you to LIMIT your neg density to allow for printing on “delicate” darkroom emulsion such as gum bichromate and cyanotype.

You can share the curves with your friends (who are customers) only at our dedicated forum but not out in the world. We have put such an investment into the Research and Development of PiezoDN that the package is sold with a software license. PiezoDN can be installed on up to three individual computers owned by the buyer or on up to 10 computers in a classroom setting.

PiezoDN is built only for Piezography ink. Piezography ink is micro-encapsulated and uniquely gloss compatible with finer carbon particles than leading OEM inks. The PK1 (previously WN1) Piezography black ink is also incredibly opaque and full resolution on gloss material. This enables PiezoDN negatives to be printed and manipulated in very unique ways for processes like Ziatype and Salt. Other inks just can’t cut it and PiezoDN will not work at all with other inks. Piezography can be a complex system.

The best way to learn Piezography is to take a class with us at Cone Editions. The alternative is to research Piezography on this website and also to download the Piezography Manual.

Yes it does. All models are supported in both the Europe and China regional printer models.

North American printer models are also now supported. The P400, P600 require our special refillable cartridges. The P800 requires our special decoder board which the user must install to disable the mechanism that Epson is using to prevent use with non-Epson branded cartridges. The P5000 is not currently supported. The P6000, P7000, P8000, and P9000 are supported but InkjetMall is not selling refillable cartridges for these printers. Other companies are selling cartridges with replaceable chips for these printer models. InkjetMall is still trying to develop a more supportable solution.

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